NASCAR: Larson wins Straight Talk Wireless Cup race in Florida

Hendrick Motorsports Chevy driver Kyle Larson passed his teammate Alex bowman on lap 262 to win the Straight Talk Wireless 400 NASCAR Cup race at Homestead-Miami Raceway.

Bowman started from pole and made a strong move on Bubba Wallace, initiating his pass for the lead coming off Turn 2. Bowman completed the overtake coming off Turn 4, successfully claiming the lead until Larson passed him.

Larson passed Wallace on Lap 25, and ran down Bowman and made the pass with 6 laps to go for his 30th career win by 1.205s.

Larson was able to seize upon a miscue by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Alex Bowman, who put his pole-winning No. 48 Chevrolet in the outside retaining wall with six laps remaining Sunday. That contact allowed Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to pass him for the race lead and jet off to a 1.205-second win – the 32-year-old Californian’s first series trophy of the year.

“I knew me coming towards those guys they were going to start moving around and making mistakes and I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex [Bowman], he may make a mistake and he caught the wall there and I got around him easier than I expected to,” the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson said. “Still had to work hard though. My balance in clean air was really loose just like those guys were. Hats off to the whole team.”

Bowman, who started from pole position, led 43 laps and was obviously disappointed even in a second-place outcome, coming so close to his first victory of the year.

“Guess I choked that one away for sure,” Bowman said, revealing he actually hit the wall harder the lap before he got passed. “Just kind of burned myself up. Saw the 5 [Larson] coming, so I moved around a little bit.

“Man, I hate that for this Ally 48 group they deserve better than that. Just a couple mistakes there. Felt like we were okay all day there.”

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace finished third, leading a season high 56 laps in the No. 23 Toyota. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe finished fourth in the No. 19 Toyota – the afternoon proving to be season best finishes for Larson, Bowman, Wallace and Briscoe.

JGR’s Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five finishing order and won Stage 2 – his 15 laps out front are most on the year for him.

The day’s most dominant driver was Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, whose No. 12 Ford led a race best 124 laps, only to suffer an engine failure with 60 laps remaining. A huge blast of smoke burst out of the car as it slowed abruptly onto the frontstretch from a top-five position.

He ended up 36th of the 37 cars, the 2023 season champion suffering his third straight DNF of the year.

“I didn’t have any warning,” said Blaney, a runner-up in the previous two Homestead races. “When I got back to wide open down the front, that was all she wrote. Just stinks. Really fast Ford Mustang, led a lot of laps, lost a little bit of track position with stuff on pit road, but got back to third and it was a great race between me, Bubba and Larson. I’m sure Denny [Hamlin] was going to get back into it, it was going to be quite a battle in the last 60 laps or so.

“Just didn’t really work out for us. We’ll continue to keep fighting. I appreciate the 12 guys for giving me just a hot rod today, an incredibly, incredibly fast race car today. We’ll keep our head up. Just one of those things where it isn’t really going our way right now. But the good news is we’re bringing fast cars and that’s all you can ask for.”

Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher rallied to a sixth-place finish, followed by Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, RFK’s Ryan Preece and Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley.

With the win Larson moved into second place in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, 36 points behind Hendrick teammate, Daytona 500 winner William Byron. Bowman is now third in the championship, 39 points back. The fourth member of the team, Chase Elliott finished 18th and is sixth in the standings

The promising start to the season a strong confidence-builder for all the drivers.

“Had to keep plugging away, proud of myself, proud of the team, just a lot of gritty hard work there today between damage on pit road, qualifying bad, bad restarts all that stuff,” said Larson, whose 30 career wins are now second only to NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (93) and Jimmie Johnson (83) among Hendrick drivers.

“Just super pumped,” Larson said. “One of the coolest wins I think of my Cup career just because of all the heartbreak here, the heartbreak yesterday. Just kept my head down and kept digging.”

The heartbreak Larson referred to was his 2-for-3 showing in his three-peat attempt. He won Friday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race and suffered a gut-wrenching near-miss in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race – an afternoon where he led the most laps only to get tapped from behind in an overtime restart and finish fourth.

Larson will attempt the three-race sweep at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in April, hoping to equal the work of two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch who is the only driver in history to win all three national series races on the same weekend – and he did it twice, ironically accomplishing the feat at Bristol in 2010 and 2017.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the first short track race of the season

Kyle Larson Quotes

Kyle, you dominated a lot of races here at Homestead. This one looked a little different today, though. You had to earn it at the end. Didn’t dominate it. Got a long run. How were you able to put it on the boards and make it so perfect that last run?

KYLE LARSON: It was far from perfect. I gave up a spot and a half, almost two spots there by getting in the wall too many times. I knew I wasn’t going to get the best restart there. I knew I wasn’t good on the short runs and just thought if I could hold off the 11 and the 45 behind me, you know, I could get Rheem in the top and the 19 too. Then I got in the wall and let him by.

Just kind of had to keep plugging away at what I know and what’s good for me. So just proud of myself, proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work there today between damage on pit road, you know, qualifying bad, bad restarts, all that stuff.

Just super pumped. One of the coolest wins I think in my Cup career just because of the heart break I’ve had here, the heart break yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.

You mentioned all the heart break yesterday and different races here. As you get the lead there with roughly about ten to go, what are you thinking? Are you just thinking, No caution right now?

KYLE LARSON: That’s what I’m thinking every time in the lead, especially here at Homestead. Yeah, just crazy. I knew me coming towards those guys, they were going to start moving around and making mistakes. I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex, I would hope that he made a mistake. He caught the wall there, and I got by him easier than I expected to.

Still had to work hard, though. My balance once I got in clean air was really loose, just like those guys were. So hats off to the whole team, Hendrickcars.com, Chevrolet, Prime, Valvoline, the whole Hendrick engine shop, everybody involved, Hendrick Automotive Group. A lot of Hendricks. Shout out to Darryl Jackson too. I think you said you’re going to owe us a bottle of Pappy. We’ll go ahead and take that.

Alex Bowman Quotes

Alex Bowman ends up leading 33 laps, and you were the leader until seven to go. Was it getting into the wall a little extra that did you in, or was there more to it?

ALEXANDRA BOWMAN: I guess I choked that one away. Just burned my stuff up. Saw the 5 coming, so moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit it hard with the right front and ended up just bending something enough that I lost a lot of right front feel and then I pulled it off the wall too far right there and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad.

So I hate that for this Ally 48 group. They deserve better than that. Just a couple of mistakes there. I felt like we were okay all day. That last run was the best we were.

Hats off to Ally and Blake and everybody for supporting this 48 team. Hate it for Mr. Hendrick. Congrats to Kyle. We’re going to try get another one this week.

Straight Talk Wireless NASCAR Cup Race Results

Average Speed of Race Winner:  131.876 mph.

Time of Race:  3 Hrs, 2 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory:  1.205 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  4 for 27 laps.

Lead Changes:  27 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   A. Bowman 1-8;R. Blaney 9-32;J. Berry 33;Z. Smith 34-36;K. Larson 37-40;R. Blaney 41-71;A. Bowman 72;R. Blaney 73-83;A. Bowman 84;C. Hocevar 85-88;A. Bowman 89-94;R. Blaney 95-117;D. Hamlin 118-124;K. Larson 125;J. Berry 126;R. Blaney 127-161;D. Hamlin 162-168;W. Byron 169;K. Larson 170-172;D. Hamlin 173;K. Larson 174-176;B. Wallace 177-212;A. Bowman 213;B. Wallace 214-215;K. Larson 216;B. Wallace 217-234;A. Bowman 235-260;K. Larson 261-267.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Ryan Blaney 5 times for 124 laps; Bubba Wallace 3 times for 56 laps; Alex Bowman 6 times for 43 laps; Kyle Larson 6 times for 19 laps; Denny Hamlin 3 times for 15 laps; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 4 laps; Zane Smith 1 time for 3 laps; Josh Berry 2 times for 2 laps; William Byron 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 12,48,19,5,2,24,16,21,4,22

Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,5,12,24,23,48,2,9,77,45